Raising women’s voices

Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1921. I want to believe that a random poll of five people on an ordinary Chicago street could still yield a magician, two dancers, a model and a secretary, I truly do. Anyway, the consensus is pretty strong across the vocational spectrum: wife-beaters merit the lash. Or the ducking stool at minimum.

Dancer and model are both good alibis for demimondaines, but long residency in hotels was not at all uncommon at the time. I refuse to leap to conclusions about these gals. Don’t want any reprisals from their great grandchildren or anything. But hookers would likely have an inside track on the flogging of dudes.

The person-in-the-street survey with head shot is my all-time favourite newspaper feature.No matter how articulate or sophisticated the response , the subject always seems to come across as a slack-jawed yokel.Perhaps it’s the passage of years , but these magicians and dancers seem not to have suffered that fate.